India: objection to Muslim women praying at college mosque in Kerala

By Sanu George - Indo-Asian News Service, 16 June 2004

A controversy is brewing in Kerala over Muslim woman students offering prayers at a college mosque. Every Friday many Muslim students at the Unity Women’s College at Manjeri in Malappuram district pray at the shrine. But now the Samastha Kerala Sunni Students Federation (SKSSF) says the practice of women offering Friday prayers inside a mosque is against Islam.

Thiruvananthapuram, June 12 (IANS) — The federation has said it would stage a protest march to the college June 17, demanding that the authorities stop the practice. The federation is led by the brother of Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) chief Panakkad Syed Muhammedali Shihab Thangal.

As per the practice among Mujahid Muslims in Kerala, women from the sect are allowed to offer prayers in a separate hall. But Sunni Muslim women are barred entry at mosques.

The Mujahid Girls Movement has said there were vested interests behind the controversy and it would oppose those trying to take away the freedom of worship granted to women.

College principal P.N. Muhammed says the students have been offering prayers at the college mosque for quite some time.

“There is no compulsion on our part. Students who wish to go for prayers can go and those who do not need not go. It is their own personal choice and we have no role in this,” said Muhammed.

E.T. Mohammed Basheer, a senior IUML leader and former education minister, said the issue should not be turned into a controversy and his party should not be dragged into it either.

“A solution to it has to be found by religious scholars and I feel a team should be selected for this. There is no point in taking this issue to the streets,” he said.